Epidemiological Endgame: Is Polio on the Brink of Eradication?

Despite the pointless political assassinations of vaccine workers or the police officers who guard them in a few deeply troubled areas, enough progress has been made against polio in the past year that health experts are now planning for the grand finale—its complete eradication by 2018. The official to-do list of what needs to be done and when to obliterate the crippling childhood disease—which goes by the name Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013–2018 (pdf)—will be formally presented at an international health meeting in Abu Dhabi on April 25.